The Cincinatti Vid and a Couple of Observations

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  Oh boy: Well, the Zapruder film has finally surfaced in Taxicab Confessions/ Bin Ladengate. Here's the abbreviated version from the news station WLWT in Cincinatti. I would like to link to the entire thing, for those of you who wish to watch an hour's worth of fuzzy police dashboard video footage, but midway through the elongated version Kennedy gives his cell and SSN#, and I'm not a big enough ass to spread that around. Also, WTF WLWT? That shit better be edited out by the time I get up in the morning. I watched the whole thing, and will say that the majority of the video consists of AK being level headed, while the Armstrong guy goes ape shit at certain times. Meanwhile, Cop #1 is a ginormous dickhead, while Cop #2 wins the game of life. The highlight of the entire thing? Cop #2: "You think we've never dealt with the national media? We deal with the Bengals." Your move, OchoCinco.
  

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  Ugh. Recruiting: Full disclosure, I've been tuning in to the recruiting boards a little. First off, 99% of the people who post there are unbelievably stupid. Secondly, it should go without saying that Forward Rebels believes "star rankings" are subjective, arbitrary and about as accurate as odds on dog-racing. But, but but, the first week of February is fun in that way that 90's Country songs on the radio when no one else is in the car are fun. Guilty pleasures are indeed, highly pleasurable. Frebs' sources confirm that of our remaining big name guys we're after, only Marlon Brown is unlikely for us. Take that for what its worth. Also, if you think Ja-Mes will be the weirdest name for a wide reciever in this class, you got another thing coming.
  

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  Hey Dogs:
  

This is what a mismatch looks like.

Let's Talk About Sex, Bay-Bee (?)

I really did have a moral dilemma about this. I'm still not 100% sure I should even be writing about it.

I mean, listen, I know the tone of blogs in general - and this one in particular - is typically snarky and malicious. Believe me, I get that. If you can be a clever enough asshole, more people will laugh at your stuff. And more people will read your stuff. And in some tech-nerdy, silly ass, one-step-below-Star-Trek-fanaticism way, the guy who writes these pointed little malicious "web logs" gets some type of satisfaction out of that.

But even I have reservations about going after somebody's family. So I wouldn't just flippantly spout off about the fact that Kimber Kennedy is taking Mohammed Akbar "Gotta" Jiddou to court because her husband, Andy, presumably can't get it up unless I had good reason.

And that reasoning is sound: Why would somebody publicly air their bedroom, um, shortcomings? Because they are trying to play bluff with a poor immigrant so he'll drop his lawsuit against their husband, that's why. If you think Kimber's lawsuit has anything to do with trying to recuperate some sort of damages from not getting any, then I've got some prime snow skiing property in Greenwood I'd like to sell you. Seriously, not only is this phony ass law suit low class, it's also ridiculously stupid. I mean, I'm no lawyer, but I'm sure there's a less embarassing claim to make - if you're just making shit up anyway - than "Oh, we're not bustin guts enough since you accused my husband of calling you Saddam Hussein."

I love Ole Miss. Love her. But I'm almost envious of student section rowdies at other SEC schools this season. Coming up with clever ways to rip on AK is going to be easier than shooting fish in a barrel.

Warren Tears ACL? Abandon All Hope, Ye Basketball Fans.

"What's good is bad, what's bad is good, you'll find out when you reach the top, you were on the bottom..."
Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind

Word is that in a post-game interview - one that I can't find transcribed anywhere - Kennedy told David Kellum that Chris Warren has torn his ACL. Let that roll around in your cranium for a little bit before reading on....

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/

Ready? OK. I guess it should come as no surprise that Kennedy called today the worst 24 hours of his life. More on that later. Before I go any further I'd like to say that if this news about Warren is true, then this season has got to be considered among the worst for an Ole Miss program in the history of the University. A season that started out with hopes of a West title, an Atlanta championship, maybe an 8 seed in the Big Dance. All that seems like it was a million years ago on December 18. We haven't gotten into SEC play, and this season has gone beyond worst case scenario - literally. This season has gone beyond the pale. Beyond the freaking pale. I want to go ahead and call it the 'Season of Vengeance' a reference to the sports gods having their way with us following 31-13 and 45-0. Maybe I'll wait for the RedSoloCup guys to come up with something more witty. But for right now, as I polish off the last of my wine bottle after witnessing the worst day of Andy Kennedy's life from start to finish, I'm going to go ahead and officially christen the 2008 Ole Miss basketball season as The Season of Vengeance.

A quick recap of the Season of Vengeance:

• Gaskins out for the year.
• Polyniece out for the year.
• Kennedy accused of a hate crime.
• Warren out for the year.
• Zero 'quality' wins.

Its really enough to make me feel sorry for Kennedy. I honestly do, a little. Its obviously not his fault that his two best players and his sixth man have all freakishly gotten injured early on in the year. And he has been good for our program. He's made people care about basketball. He's generated the funding for the Basketball Practice Facility. The players love him. He's consistently on the sidelines supporting the football team. I mean, in these respects, he is exactly what I want in an Ole Miss baskeball coach. He seems to care about the players and the school, and those are excellent qualities to have in a coach.

But I cannot comprehend this free-pass he is getting from the majority of Ole Miss fans. I'll be succinct: What has Andy Kennedy done to deserve the benefit of the doubt, much less forgiveness, in the Taxigate Scandal?

Does anyone sincerely believe that he was just out at 1:00 a.m. "dining with old friends from his Cincinatti coaching days" as his brother suggested? How do you give that statement any credibility, when everyone knows that Kennedy is a lush. That statement was laughable.

Honestly, its not uncommon to see a coach - say Bianco or Nutt - out on the square. These guys are generally heading into City Grocery or 208 with their families. They speak to fans, they joke with the waitstaff, pay their tickets, go home, tuck their kids in bed and go to sleep. What other coach in the history of the program has been allowed to go make a fool of himself on a consistent basis while everybody just looks the other way? And don't think for a second that Boone and Khayat aren't just as aware of this as you and I. At the end of the day, Oxford is still very much a small town where word gets around quicker than anyone would like to admit.

I think I'm letting my thoughts get away without making my broader point, which is this: Why are people so adamant about protecting Kennedy here? A winning program? Newsflash: Its year 3 under Kennedy, and we are way worse than we were in year 1. No way around that. All the talk about Kennedy not having his players to run his system is absolute horseshit. Who have the best players been for the past two years? Far and away, they have been guys Barnes recruited. Doyne, Abernethy, Curtis - all Barnes' kids. I realize Kennedy couldn't have been expected to have his own starters in year 1, but its year 3, and the one quality kid he's brought in is probably lost for the season now (obviously, through no fault of his own). For the record, Huertas signed under Barnes, and had to sit out his transfer year during 2006, AK's first year.

None of this "quality of players signed" stuff would be all that huge of a deal to me if Kennedy didn't make such a point of throwing all of Barnes' guys under the bus that first year. I was on the baseline taking photos one night when someone from the stands hollered to AK to take Doyne out of the game after he missed several shots. Kennedy responded by pointing at the entire bench and hollering 15 rows up to this guy "Who the hell I am supposed to put in?" -- as in, "everbody else sucks even worse." This was done in front of a packed crowd, and drew sufficient laughter from the front 10 rows or so. Believe me when I tell you nobody on the bench was smiling.

He also took swipes at the '06 seniors while bellied up at the Sporst Bar on several occasions. A friend of mine, who Kennedy doesn't know from Adam, told me that one night AK bought him shots and proceeded to talk basketball with him for a little bit. "I love these kids because they work hard," Kennedy said of the seniors, Sanders, Doyne and Abernethy, "but I wouldn't have given a scholarship to a single one of those bastards. They wouldn't be on the team if I had anybody else." These statements came about a week after Clay Sanders gave Ole Miss fans one of their greatest moments in the LSU rivalry with his Valentine's Day buzzer beater. At a time when we didn't have much of anything over LSU.

Well fuck you too, Andy Kennedy. You have recruited exactly one player who has proven to be anywhere near as talented as those three were. I know their contributions - especially Bam's - can largely be attributed to AK's system and coaching, but why throw them under the bus like that? And those comments had the underlying theme that the players he would be bringing in would be head and shoulders better than those guys. Again, its year 3, and that simply is NOT the case.

I guess what I'm saying is this: If two trips to the NIT with someone else's players are sufficient enough to make excuses for a lush who spends the night in jail before the biggest game of the season, then what in the hell is considered inexcusable to this fanbase? Is the NIT worth sacrificing our dignity? Would we react this way if Rod Barnes got arrested the night before a game on national television? Take your "I love Ole Miss and everything associated with it" blinders off and ask yourself those three questions.

In all sincerity, we all love Ole Miss. The key is to avoid loving Ole Miss like a child loves his mommy - "Mommy can do no wrong so I'll defend everything she does." The key is to love Ole Miss like a spouse - to care enough to call her out when she is acting inappropriately.

Oh yeah, we lost the game.

Andy Kennedy Speaks! (sort of)

Alright this is the last I'll be updating until tonight after work. Probably have something up around the time we're getting embarassed on multiple levels on ESPN (Damn you, ESPN). Anyhow, the guy that covers Ole Miss for the Clarion-Ledger spoke to Steven Kennedy, who had apparently already spoken with his brother, Andy, about this whole taxi thing. Here is what Stevie had to say:

"The team had its normal team meeting at about 11 p.m. and then the coaches went out for a late-night dinner with some friends that Andy had when he was in Cincinnati. After they were done, they were leaving dinner and hailed a taxi. The taxi driver pulled up and the coaches (Kennedy, Bill Armstrong, Michael White, Owen Miller and Torrey Ward) piled into the car. Kennedy was in the front. The cab driver decides that he won't take all five guys, he'll only take four, and he started calling coach Ward (who is black) the 'N' word, so Kennedy says they'll get another cab. The cab hadn't moved, but the driver demanded that six dollars be paid. At this point, Kennedy got out of the cab and went to another cab directly behind them and asked the second driver if he would take five people. That cab driver said yes. But when the coaches tried to get out of the first cab, the cab driver locked the back doors and drove about 100 feet with the four assistants in the back. Kennedy was standing on the curb. Apparently, some words were said in the cab and the cops were called. When the police showed up, the cab driver said Kennedy punched him and called him racial slurs. So the cops, who Andy said were nice, but had to do their jobs, put him in handcuffs and put him into the squad car. At that point, Armstrong started saying stuff like this is bull s--- and he ended up getting arrested as well. But Andy never touched the cab driver or called him any names. They spent six hours in jail for this. It's amazing that someone can just make an accusation and someone gets thrown into jail."

Weirdly, Kennedy's other brother, Donnie, also claimed to have his own version of events. He provided the Clarion-Ledger with his version of what was said after Kennedy entered the vehicle.

Kennedy: Jesus, man, could you change the channel?

Cab Driver: Fuck you man. If you don't like my fuckin' music get your own fuckin' cab!

Kennedy: I had a rough...

Cab Driver: I pull over and kick your ass out!

Kennedy: Come on, man. I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man!

Oh Boy. The Beginning of the End of AK?

Ok,

1.) I don't feel bad for posting this because there are only about 12 random people who check this blog daily anyway (I'm looking at you, Englewood, CO. Thanks.), and

2.) It was gonna get out there anyway.

Still, I somehow still feel like I'm contributing to the demise of a very good coach by letting you know about Andy Kennedy's latest bit of assholery. This could be really, really messy, gang. Make no bones about it: he could get fired over this. I certainly hope not, but the University of Mississippi, when it comes to racism, lives in a fishbowl. I'm very busy at work today, but I'll do my best to stay on top of this situation and keep you posted.

Honestly though, before I get back to work here, is there anybody who is really surprised to see the news after clicking that link? If I had a nickel for everytime Andy Kennedy was just wrecked, bellied up at the Sports Bar, hitting on some 20 year old girl, I wouldn't have to be working right now. I know this is a knee-jerk reaction, but its hard for me to have sympathy for someone who has great talent and great opportunity, but wants to throw it all away to put a buzz on and look at college girls. Why in the hell was he out until the wee hours of the morning, anyway?

Further, I find it ironic that the one place his whole "I don't give a shit, I'm Billy Badass" charade caught up to him was back in Cincinatti. I mean, I would imagine that somebody could reasonable expect to get away with these antics in a major city, where its easier to get lost in the crowd. Its when he brought that show to Oxford, where literally 98% of the population could recognize him as he's barfing behind a dumpster, that he could've easily be penalized for acting like a lush. Somehow though, it took a return trip to Cincy for that to happen. You can't make this stuff up.

By the way, Lousiville is liable to beat us by 40 tonight. Oh boy, indeed.

• Update # 1: POSTED: 8:18 am EST December 18, 2008
  UPDATED: 9:38 am EST December 18, 2008
  
  CINCINNATI -- A former interim University of Cincinnati's head men's basketball coach was arrested early Thursday on an assault charge.
  A complaint filed in Hamilton County Municipal Court states that Andy Kennedy "punched (the) victim with a closed fist while shouting racial slurs," at 550 Walnut Street at about 1 a.m.
  The victim is listed as cab driver Mohammed Jiddou.
  No other information has been released so far.
  

Stream of consciousness thoughts as this thing plays out:

This is not going away. The more I hear about this, the worse it gets for Kennedy. Yes, he went to jail sometime around 1:00 this morning. I did that once. I was 18 years old and it was my birthday and the University Police Department thought I'd had a few too many to be in public. Not exemplary behavior, but... I was 18 year old.

Andy Kennedy is a grown ass man, but more importantly an ambassador of the University of Mississippi, which is completely different than being an ambassador to any other school in the nation on this one little issue: race. We are the only school in the nation that had a riot in the 60's...FROM THE RIGHT. We have been in a perpetual state of damage control for the past 46 years because people from all over the south decided to infiltrate our campus and make us their battle ground. We have apologized, and damage controlled, and media relationed and statue erected until we were blue in the face. All of us, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US, take the blame for things like this. I have told myself that I was going to try and quit using curse words on this blog but I am sorry I cannot because I cannot, for the life of me, quit trying to figure out just WHAT IN THE MOTHERFUCK WERE YOU THINKING, Andy? Why? I am so tired of having to defend the University against ignorant assholes who think we're all backwards and what do you do but hand them a fresh arsenal of ammunition. This is literally making me sick - like nauseated sick.

I will not be surprised, nor saddened, if Kennedy is gone by tip-off tonight. By the time the ESPN crew talks about Ole Miss' tumultuous past for the first 20 minutes, by the time we've all seen the Meredith footage coming out of commercial break, by the time I finish my fourth bourbon drink and am ready to punch a hole in the wall, I think most every one will agree with me: Kennedy needs to be gone. Yesterday. Good riddance.

More updates to follow.

• Update # 2: From Cincinatti.com Posted at 9:38 a.m.

Kennedy has hired attorney Mike Allen to represent him. Allen pleaded
not guilty on behalf of his client this morning. He said Kennedy "emphatically denies this and emphatically denies making any racial slurs.

So I think paying attention to the comments section on news sights is just an exercise in stupidity, as any dummy with a keyboard can weigh in. All the morons come out of the woodwork. Check any comment section on a youtube video for proof. The reason I say as much is because the Hotty Toddy Blog is urging people to notice all of the comments in the above link claiming that Cincinatti's troubled racial makeup has produced other "false alarm" race card pullings in the past. Take that for what its worth. Personally, I don't think its worth much at all.

Maybe I am being a bit reactionary here. But listen: even if Kennedy never said a word during this altercation, even if he never threw the first punch, why in the world is he out at 1:00 a.m. in Cincinatti the night before his struggling team plays its biggest game of the year on national television? Shouldn't he be thinking about Ole Miss basketball? At the very least, this shows a propensity for terrible, terrible judgement.

• Update #3: From this website. Posted at 9:59 a.m.

The police report states that there was an unrelated witness who saw the incident.Kennedy is charged with misdemeanor assault. He has a court appearance set for 12:30 today but he will not have to appear if an attorney makes an appearance and enters a written plea on his behalf.

This is not "he said" vs. "he said". There's a witness. Also, in the first quasi-silver lining news of the day, Deadspin has the story as "Mississippi State's Coach Arrested." Sure that won't be the last time that happens today. So we got that going for us.

• Update #4: Details steadily emerging:

Also arrested was William Armstrong, the director of operations at Mississippi, on a charge of disorderly conduct, reports show.
Reports state Armstrong, 31, was drunk and thrown out of the Lodge Bar downtown early this morning.
After that, he and Kennedy got a cab. A report says Armstrong taunted the driver “in which his conduct was likely to cause a violent response.”A separate report says Kennedy “was the aggressor” and punched the driver, Mohammed Ould Jiddou. During the attack Kennedy used “racial slurs.”

Kennedy has hired former Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen to represent him. Allen entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client this morning. He said Kennedy "emphatically denies this and emphatically denies making any racial slurs."Police say a person standing nearby witnessed the assault and that Armstrong was so intoxicated he refused to calm down when asked and requested that he be taken to jail.

Mitchell Diggs, the assistant director of media at Mississippi, said the school's athletic director and chancellor are meeting about the situation. No decision has been made about whether Kennedy will coach tonight.

This keeps getting worse for the University. Now, not only is the coach suspected of being a backwards, militant lush, but so is someone from inside the University's current administration. Again, Kennedy is emphatically denying everything - except that he was housed at 1:00 a.m. the morning of the biggest game of the season. It will be interesting to see if he's on the sideline tonight. I've got to get to work, but will post updates periodically. What. A. Shitshow.

BTW, this here is Bill Armstrong.

• Update #'s 5 and 6, collectively:

First, legit Cincinatti Journalist Paul Dougherty blogs a little hope into the situation.

"Yep, actually talked to Someone Who Would Know just a few minutes ago. He said the cabbie dropped a racial slur on a member of Andy's party as they got into the cab... AK and his four companions, all his assistant coaches, got out of the cab and hailed another. As they were on their way back to their hotel, cops pulled them over and charged AK with assault. My source said AK assaulted no one and has 4 eyewitnesses to swear to it. Given what I know of Kennedy from having covered him as a head coach and as Huggins' top assistant, I believe this account."

So there's that. Maybe Kennedy didn't do anything at all. Maybe this is why the other blogs were with-holding their knee-jerk reactions. Still, guy was out at 1:00 a.m. and also, we're still dealing with crap like being on the front page of espn.com:

10 to 1 odds ESPN doesn't post a follow up story if Kennedy is found innocent. Theoretically, if this was all like a big hoax and the real Andy Kennedy is just now finding out about all this and laughing because some other tall bald white guy named Andy Kennedy got arrested last night, and everyone was just totally wrong about this entire thing...I still give ESPN 4 to 1 odds of posting a retraction. Eff ESPN.